Glenfield Technical Library

Weak Twos

Last Updated on 17^th August 2008

Introduction

These opening bids of two hearts and two spades promise six cards in the suit and a defined point range of 5 points (usually one of 5-9 or 6-10). Some pairs also play a weak two in diamonds.

This hand posed a problem at Glenfield Bridge Club on 15^th October 2003
Board 5 Dealer N NS Game	North ª 95 © KQT943 ¨ K9 § J85		Those pairs playing weak twos would be able to open the North hand with two hearts. This is passed round to West who can reopen with three no trumps. East might feel this hand is worth four clubs, Gerber, and hearing a four diamond response, showing 0 or 4 aces, may push on to six diamonds. If North passed, East might pre-empt three, or even four, diamonds. This gives West a problem. Probably three no trumps is the best effort over three diamonds; five diamonds over four diamonds. There is no reason why East can be expected to hold the black kings after the pre-emptive opening and game appears to be enough. East/West will have an easier time if the bidding comes round to West who opens two no trumps. East then continues via Gerber to six diamonds. Congratulations to Bill Youngs and Derick Symonds who were the only pair to bid and make six diamonds on this deal. Another pair did get to slam, but they reached six no trumps. After the king of hearts was led, this required the diamond finesse. It was not to be, and deservedly so, for six no trumps is not the correct spot. If you are going to rely on the diamond finesse, why not bid seven diamonds? Nevertheless, six no trumps was not a bottom; the score of minus fifty tied with one pair who played in three hearts and another who played in four clubs! The second best East/West score went to Mary France and Pam Leeson who played in three no trumps; escaped the king of hearts lead, and made twelve tricks.
West ª AJ7 © AJ75 ¨ AJ § AQ76		East ª KT4 © 6 ¨ QT765432 § K
	South ª Q8632 © 82 ¨ 8 § T9432

Responding to a Weak Two

Players often continue the auction with the Blue Club Responses whereby a bid of two no trumps asks about the openers point count and trump quality. Opener rebids as follows:

Response	Meaning
Three Clubs	Lower point range and poor trumps
Three Diamonds	Lower point range and good trumps
Three Hearts	Upper point range and poor trumps
Three Spades	Upper point range and good trumps

Competing against a Weak Two

The traditional methods include the following bids:

Bid	Meaning
Double	Much the same as a take out double of one of a suit. The Lebensohl convention facilitates continuation.
Two No Trumps	15-17 points. Balanced. Peter Neville and Tim Glover continue as they would over a two no trump opening bid; three clubs is Baron; three diamonds and three hearts are red suit transfers and three spades is a slam try with both majors.
New Suit	12-15 points. 5 card suit.
Three No Trumps	18-19 points. Balanced or long minor.

Advantages of a Weak Two

The advantages are:

1. They are claimed to occur much more frequently than a strong two bid.

2. They disrupt opponent’s bidding forcing them to guess.

This hand from the National Masters Pairs on 1^st March 2003 shows how the weak two can push opponents into the wrong contract.
Board 6 Dealer E EW Vul	North ª 6 © Q987 ¨ JT94 § QJ93		South opened a weak two spades third in hand. I bid three no trumps. North did well to lead a diamond rather than a spade or heart and I was restricted to the ace of clubs and two tricks in each of the other three suits. Without the weak two I would probably open one club (the trick taking potential is too limited to open two no trumps) Peter would probably bid two clubs, I would try two no trumps and Peter would probably pass.
West ª AQ5 © AK4 ¨ K86 § AT84		East ª 742 © J6 ¨ A752 § 7652
	South ª KJT983 © T532 ¨ Q3 § K

Disadvantages of a Weak Two

Acol loses its strong two bids. The consequence of this is that more strong hands are opened at the one level and, when one of the remaining strong two’s is used, a round of bidding is lost finding which suit is held. In practical terms the big loss is the loss of two diamonds to show a strong hand with eight playing tricks with a good diamond suit. The acol strong bids can be retained by playing the multi; or if you prefer the multi allows you to combine weak twos with Lucas twos.

The weak two is restricted to a narrow point range, which may give an opposing declarer an advantage in the play that would not otherwise be available.

I am in a minority and consider the disadvantages of weak twos outweigh their merit. I am not sure the frequency argument is sound given that a weak two cannot occur in fourth position and is fairly unlikely in third position. Also, in practice the Acol two bid can range from about 16 high card points up to about 22 which is actually a wider range.

A weak two in second position is as likely to preempt partner as opponents while a weak two in first position could still pre-empt partner. Such a bid resulted in a missed slam on board 18 of the match between John Storer House and Glenfield A on 9^th October 2002.

Over many hands I believe our greater accuracy with diamond slams has brought in more match points than we have lost by not playing them.

If you do play weak twos and it pushes the opposition into the wrong contract you have to exploit the opportunity with accurate defence. Otherwise you will just record a bottom as occurred on this deal at Glenfield Bridge Club on 24^th July 2002. However the poor quality suits which many players open creates uncertainty for the defence:
	North ª 93 © AKJ9 ¨ J92 § A543	Dealer East Game All	East opened two spades. South and West passed and North reopened with a take out double. East passed and South had a problem. He was playing Lebensohl responses to a take out double which meant that the natural value bid, two no trumps, would conventionally request partner to relay to three clubs with a view to distinguish between a hand that wanted to play in three of a suit as opposed to invite game in the suit. With no means of bidding accurately South closed his eyes and punted three no trumps. On this occasion south was unlucky to find north with a minimum. East West had achieved their first objective with the weak two. They had manoeuvred their opponents into a dubious contract. Could they exploit the situation? Had west known that south had bid three no trumps with such a flimsy holding in spades he would have launched the defence with the ten of spades. As it was he elected to lead the king of clubs. South could then tell clubs were breaking 4-1 so took the ace and set about the spades himself. East won the first spade (it would have been better to duck) and continued with a small spade. South won the jack and finessed the jack of hearts. When this won south attempted to put pressure on east by exiting with a club. West cashed three club tricks on which east discarded a heart, a diamond and a spade. West then exited with the queen of hearts (a diamond would have been better). When east showed out the contract was assured whenever east’s four diamonds included the queen. North won the king of hearts, crossed to the king of diamonds and finessed the nine of hearts. East was able to discard a spade but when the ace of hearts was led, east squirmed. His last three cards were the king of spades and the queen ten of diamonds while south held the jack of spades and the ace and four of diamonds. Dummy still had the jack and nine of diamonds. South had been able, with the cooperation of the defence, to execute a simple squeeze against east for the ninth trick. Most North-South’s, without the weak two, had played the hand as north in one no trump, mostly making seven tricks after a fourth best spade lead by east; one had made eight, presumably via an inspired view in hearts. Four east’s had bought the contract in spades (surely the east hand is worth overcalling one no trump!) Only one north south managed to cash their five top tricks to go with their sure trump trick. One east managed to make nine tricks! One north south played in two no trumps and finished one down. Note how the weak two here created uncertainty for west’s defence. Players are known to open on suits as poor as Q9xxxx in which case the opening club lead, which holed the defence, would have been entirely reasonably. Note too how the weak two helped declarer. After trick two declarer knew that east held precisely six red cards and at most one of the red queens.
West ª T2 © QT72 ¨ 765 § KQJ7		East ª AK8754 © 65 ¨ QT83 § T
	South ª QJ6 © 843 ¨ AK4 § 9862

Here is a hand from the County Match against Gloucestershire on 14^th December 2003 for you to try your judgement on:

ª KT © A63 ¨ JT7542 § K5

You are South at favourable vulnerability. Your partner deals and opens a weak two spades. Your right hand opponent passes. What do you do? How many tricks do you expect to make? Do you pass? Do you bid two no trumps asking for more information? Do you pre-empt three spades to make it difficult for your left hand opponent? Make your choice and click here to continue.

Statistics at IMPs – They open a weak two	Partner	Hands	IMPs	Imps/Bd
Porter – Nottinghamshire 5 Leicestershire 15	Peter Neville	1	2	2
Glenfield A 6 Grantham A 6	Judith Taylor	1	1	1.00
Porter – Lincolnshire 0 Leicestershire 20	Peter Neville	1 (2)	10 (12)	10.00 (6)
Stanley Trophy 2006/7 - Heat 1	John Glover	1	5	5
Total for 2006		4	18	4.50
Loughborough A 10 Glenfield A 2	Peter Neville	1 (3)	-12 (0)	-12 (0)
Porter – Leicestershire 5 Oxfordshire 15	Peter Neville	1 (4)	0 (0)	0 (0)
Total for 2007		1	0	0
Total		4	18	4.50

Site Map Last Updated 17^th August 2008
1. Home Page	Club News	Glenfield A Fixtures	Glenfield B Fixtures	Forthcoming Events	Links	Master Points
2. Newsletters, Photos and Correspondence	Bulletin Board	April 2003	Xmas Tree Competition	Xmas Party	AGM
3. Competitions	Chairman’s Prize 2003
4. Results Archive	Buildrite Cup	Helen Doughty Memorial Trophy	Club Results	A team results	B team results	C team results	D team results
5. Statistics	Statistics Archive
6. Technical Library
6.1 Bidding	Strategy	Acol	Psychic Bidding	Precision	Blue Club
6.1.1 Hand Evaluation	Defensive Tricks	Losing Trick Count	Playing Tricks	Point Count	Total Number of Tricks	Passing
6.1.2 Opening Bids	One Club	One Diamond	One Heart	One Spade	One No Trump	Pre-empts
	Two Clubs	Two Diamonds	Two Hearts	Two Spades	Two No Trumps
6.1.3 Responding to an Opening Bid	Simple change of suit	Opener’s Rebid	Responder’s Rebid	Preference	Opener’s Second Rebid	Jump in a new suit	Responding in no trumps
	Limit Raise	Inverted Minors
6.1.3.1 Responding to 1NT	Transfers
6.1.3.2 Responding to 2NT	Transfers	Baron
6.1.4 Conventions	Stayman	Fourth Suit Forcing	Reverse	Crowhurst
6.1.4.1 Conventional Opening Bids	Lucas Twos	Multi Two Diamonds	Weak Twos
6.1.4.2 Competitive Conventions	Jump Overcall	Lebensohl	Unassuming Cue Bid	Unusual No Trump	Continuing after opponent’s take out double	Take out Double	Cue Bid
	Fishbein	Defence to 1NT	Halmic	1NT Overcall	Redouble	Simple Overcall
6.1.4.3 Slam Conventions	Blackwood	Gerber	Roman Key Card Blackwood	Splinter	Jump to 5 of a suit	Grand Slam Force	Acol Four No Trump Opening
	Asking Bids	DOPI and ROPI
6.1.5 Doubles	Optional	Penalty	Lead Directional
6.1.6 The Protective Position
6.2 Declarer Play
6.2.1 General Technique	End Play	Squeeze	Finesse	Lose tricks early	Pin	Avoidance	Restricted Choice
6.2.2 Trump Management	Ruffing	Ruffing Losers before drawing trumps	Trump Coup	Ruffing Finesse	Loser on Loser	Coping with bad splits	Cross Ruff
	Dummy Reversal
6.3 Defence	Second Player	Signals	Third Player	Play the cards you are known to have
6.3.1 Defensive Tactics	Forcing Defence	Passive Defence	Merrimac Coup
6.3.2 Opening Leads	Fourth Highest	Third and Fifth	MUD	Top of Nothing
6.3.3 Plays in Third Hand	Finesse Against Dummy	Finesse Against Partner
6.3.4 Entry Management	Unblocking
6.4 Probability
6.5 Glossary of Terms
7 Through the Pack